The Lucky Penny house was empty when she arrived and somehow it looked even worse without Deke and Blake there. Without those two big cowboys to talk to her or at least to each other while she listened, she noticed the ugly paint on the walls, the nasty stains on the ceilings, and the scuffed marks on the woodwork even more.
She sighed when she reached the bedroom and then smiled. It reminded her of Cinderella in her rags, kind of like the muddy mess the snow would make when it melted. But in a week, the room would be the princess in all her glory with its new paint job, pretty new ceiling, shiny hardwood floors, and that big beautiful king-size bed taking center stage. Then it would be as fresh and pretty as the morning with nothing marring the beauty of fresh-fallen snow.
The bare lightbulb would be replaced by the six-blade oak fan with a lovely school-glass light kit. It had been the last one in stock and on a seventy-five percent off sale so she’d bought it on a whim, and now she was having second thoughts. He might have asked what she’d do to the room if she had to sleep in it the rest of her life, but he hadn’t meant she could go off half-cocked and buy something without even asking him about it.
First she had to tear out the nasty old before she could put in the shiny new. She smiled as she thought of her father saying those very words every time they started a new job.
As brittle as the old drywall was, it wouldn’t be nice and come down in four-by-eight sheets. It would fall in chunks of every size that would throw white powder and mildew dust everywhere. She shut the door and opened the window.
Sure it would get cold but she’d dressed in thermal underwear, cargo pants, an old cotton western shirt, and insulated coveralls. She put her earbuds in and pushed the button on the tiny little MP3 player tucked into her pocket.
George Strait entertained her as she brought down the ceiling a piece at a time and then went back to remove all the nails from the ceiling joists. It was close to noon when she finished. The room was still filled with a fog of white powder and the old carpet would never be usable again, not with that much white powder ground down into the fibers.
With the music in her ears she didn’t know anyone was in the house until Blake touched her on the ankle. She jerked the earbud out and frowned. “You scared the shit out of me. Don’t sneak up on a woman holding a hammer.”
He grinned. “Sorry about that. I called your name when I came in and a couple more times as I came this way. Want some help? The dozer is bogging down in the snow. Deke and Herman have plenty to keep them busy with what I’ve already got piled up. Crazy, even with the snow it’s not as cold as it was over the weekend.”
“There isn’t any wind. That makes a difference. Got a hammer?”
“Of course.”
She nodded. “Then yes, you can help get these nails out and then we’ll be ready to hang the Sheetrock after we have dinner.”
He was only gone a few minutes before he returned wearing a pair of coveralls like hers and carrying a hammer. “Seems colder in here than it does outside, don’t it?”
“Yep,” she said.
His biceps strained the seams of the camouflage coveralls as he popped one nail after another from the ceiling rafters. Keeping her eyes uplifted and concentrating on her own job was not easy for Allie. More than once, she found herself pausing to stare at the ease with which he reached up with that heavy hammer, hung the claw on a nail head, and pulled it free without so much as a grunt.
Riley had hated quiet. If they had nothing to talk about, then he turned on the television. Even if he didn’t watch it, he wanted noise at all times. Blake seemed perfectly comfortable working in silence with her, and she liked that. The screeching sound of nail after nail coming out of an old rafter was better than music.
That’s when she remembered the tiny player in her coverall’s pocket and pulled it out, turned it off, and was returning it when they heard a loud rapping on the front door.
Blake laid the hammer on the floor. “Be right back. Can’t imagine who is here.”
The claw of the hammer was hung in a nail when Allie heard a familiar raspy giggle. She eased it back down and laid it on the top of the ladder. Two backward steps and her boots hit the floor. Five steps forward and she opened the door a crack and peeked. Yep, she’d been right. It was Sharlene and she was handing off a six-pack of beer to Blake.
She patted his cheek affectionately. “I was up in Wichita Falls over the weekend and thought you might need this. I know you have lots of food but a man cannot live by bread alone, he must have beer.”
“Thank you.” Blake’s smile lit up the whole dingy room. “Bless your heart for thinking of me. And truer words were never spoken. I’ll put this in the refrigerator. Want a cup of coffee to take the chill off?”